Tavra Shockclaw
__FORCETOC__ Physical Appearance Tavra is built for endurance from her years of exploration. She has good muscle mass on her legs and upper body and has maintained the toned look over the years past her retirement. However, as she has aged, her scales have begun to dull from their original vibrant colors and other signs of aging, such as slower movement and dulled hearing, have started to set in. Her eyesight is growing poorer, as well, and in recent years she's had to hire servants to read and write for her, which causes her great distress at times due to how much she used to love the activity in her own private time. She isn't blind, though, and still keeps herself active to avoid other physical aging. She does not let age stop her from exploring her nearby area or hiking through the Gren Kingdom to speak to local historians or aspiring researchers who need her knowledge. She stands about 1.5m (4'11") tall, putting her on the very short end of the scale for a Trezlin. Her big personality and outspoken nature can make her appear larger in any crowd, though, and she tends to make up for her height like that. Personality Tavra is an overly curious woman, believing that knowledge will light the way to any happy ending over war or ignorance. She prefers to observe over encounter, but has a silver tongue to help her get her way if she ever gets into a pickle. This natural curiosity has been with her since she was a child and persisted through adulthood, leading her to her life's work chronicling the intelligent species of Threa and its broad environments. She also has a deep love for reading and writing, which backed up her life's work by allowing her to write down her discoveries as she made them. She is a moderately good artist as well, able to make drawings of things she encounters. Her native language is Gren, but through her travels she has picked up bits and pieces of the various languages in Threa. She is nearly fluent in Aez, though it is hard for her to emulate, and has picked up bits and pieces of Riz and Blaz. Her mother taught her Trez at a young age as well. As someone who values knowledge, Tavra has found a kinship with the dragon species of Aezkul and, to an extent, Hozkul. This has turned her against her own kingdom's practices of sport hunting kul, but is not against the protection of her nation against the more wild vicious kul that can risk Gren lives. In her elder years, Tavra has been unable to satisfy her itch to continue exploring the world like she used to, but she still lives out her love in small scale by hiking through the Gren kingdom. Her vast wealth of knowledge on the 'vicious' beings outside of the Gren Kingdom has led her to become somewhat of a celebrity among noble crowds and that of the beastslayer guild, but her heart truly lies in sparking interest in the hearts of young Gren in the world around them. Likes & Dislikes Likes: *Exploration and discovery *Knowledge and learning *Teaching Dislikes: *Ignorance and intolerance *Impatience, the need to know everything without work *Hostility without reason Strengths & Weaknesses Strengths: *Maintains a lot of endurance and strength despite her age *Very knowledgeable of Threa's ecosystems *Wealthy from her own work and inherited from her noble parents *Silver tongue; is very good at twisting her words and thus others' interests to match her own Weaknesses: *Incompetent in hand-to-hand combat *Thinks highly of herself and her knowledge to the point of arrogance at times *Has little patience when others' values contradict hers Story Biography From a young age, Tavra was a restless adventurer. As a child, she climbed all over her father's home, avoiding servants by tucking herself into corners of furniture where she couldn't be seen. Every time she had the opportunity, she would run into the nearby woods to explore amongst the trees, finding solace in the greenery. Her parents, however, didn't exactly appreciate such recklessness. In the Gren Kingdom, women aren't exactly expected to take up such hard jobs as exploring, fighting, or adventuring. Tavra's mother, especially, wished for her to be more grounded and satisfied living a simple family life and bearing children for her future husband. Tavra, of course, would have none of that. During her formative years, Tavra sucked up all the information she was taught like a sponge. Learning Trez from her mother, she figured out she had a natural knack for language. Tavra's father made sure to use his funds saved from his kulslayer days to fund his daughter's education as far as he could, hiring the best tutors he could afford to prepare his daughter for life in whatever she wanted to pursue. He saw potential in her exploratory ways and wagered she'd be the first woman to pick up a sword against a kul. This only served to frustrate her more conservative mother, however. Tavra's teenage years were spent rebelliously. Instead of helping her mother around the house, Tavra often snuck out to explore the woods of her childhood. She went as far as to visit the local wolshaks and attempt to learn how they go about their lives, much to the disdain of the noble who hires them. Tavra even had frisky escapades with men her age, teasing them with her sharp looks and famous lineage. She often earned herself heavy-handed punishment in these years, leading her to slowly shape up into a more agreeable Gren woman in her early twenties. However, her adventuring spirit never left her and she eventually convinced her father to allow her to strike out and explore the local realm. Her father, although reluctant, decided to allow his daughter to explore, much to the horror of his wife. He decided that if he held her back, she'd sneak out and hurt herself in some way - just like she has all her life. He gave her enough funding to keep her fed and housed for a few weeks away from home with the caveat that she would promise to return to him in a few weeks' time. While Tavra did promise, she ended up breaking it. She took his gift and ran with it, starting her famous travels at the age of twenty-seven. Starting in the Gren Kingdom, Tavra began to observe and document the creatures she's heard her father tell stories of all her life - the kul. She sat on riverside boulders sketching Mazkul and crept through forests stalking Trezkul that stalked their prey in turn. She laid beside a mated pair of escaped Sokan Trezkul, learning of their enslaved lives in their broken Trez in exchange for a detailed description of where to create a territory far out of reach of the Gren kulslayers. She crept through the jungles of the Rizkul along the rushing rivers and nearly lost her life to savage Rizlin, only saving herself by offering the golden jewelry she kept on her in exchange for her life and the knowledge of where to get more. She made history as the only Trezlin known to walk into a Rizlin village and meet a matriarch Rizkul and live with all limbs intact. She spent years living among the Aezkul of the central Zule, learning their language through interpreters and exchanging knowledge for knowledge. She was blessed to ride on the back of dragons and witness the hatching of a new generation of kul. She observed the Ivus vo Aez celebrations as an honorary guest and was delivered to the cautious Hozkul with good words from the Aezkul and the promise of worthiness in her blood. Tavra read ancient scripts with Hozkul elders who spoke in slow and cautious Aez before being flown to the far north on the back of an Aezkul juvenile she befriended in the years past, observing the legendary Izkul and the friendly Truzkul. She wandered the tundra amidst a tribe of Truzkul, not knowing their language but offering help in hunting and protection against the Truzlin through desperate miming and her Aezkul interpreter. She traveled south to the Gren Kingdom then once more, boarding a ship with the last dregs of gold she had to visit the great open port of the Blazkul and converse with the Firehorns, the only race that wouldn't kill her at first glance. By now, she was aging and tiring, reaching fifty years old. A visiting merchant Gren ship recognised her name and took her home for free, saving her from bartering for her life with the stingy Blazkul. She then finally returned home to her aged parents, who cried with joy at their only living daughter having finally come home. She told them of her travels and turned her journals into novels that she sold to nobles nationwide, making a living out of something that was once denied to her. Her father's inheritance was passed to her upon his death a few years later, followed shortly by her mother. Tavra inherited her childhood home and finally, like her mother wanted to, settled down - albeit without a family. Ongoing Story Tavra resides in her original family home, writing novels through the use of hired scribes. She sells novels of her travels and hte knowledge she gained from them as her primary source of income, giving her a comfortable margin to live off of mixed with her parents' inheritance. Occasionally she is still visited by the Aezkul she befriended those twenty-thirty-so years ago at the border of the Gren Kingdom and Treztown. As she ages, she can make less and less trips to the border to see her old friend, leading the dragon to sneak to her home to see her. Tavra knows her time is coming soon and thus spends her years writing down every detail she never thought to think of before, hoping to inspire a generation of children after her to get out of their home and explore the world. She visits local villages to teach children of her travels and tell tales of the great world beyond their borders. In her elder years, with her books helping the local beastslayer and nobles greatly, Tavra has gained a great amount of notoriety and is welcomed across the kingdom. She hopes to spend her final years resting at her home and has requested her Aezkul friend to bear her body to the Creator in her own talons when the time comes. Trivia *Tavra is inspired by Helena from ARK: Survival Evolved and her journal takes inspiration from Helena's explorer notes. 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